Leslie Horn

Google chief Larry Page has announced that the company's $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility is finally official.

He said that Sanjay Jha has stepped down as Motorola CEO, as had been expected, and has handed the reins to Google's Dennis Woodside. The Motorola buy was made presumably for its intellectual property, which amounts to 17,000 patents. There are rumors that the hardware business will be sold, perhaps to China's Huawei.

Google could be on the brink of confirming suspicions that it only bought Motorola for its 17,000…
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That said, Google hasn't made any definitive statements about its plans, but let's hope this nab doesn't mean it's going to try to do everything all at once—make handsets and maintain its Android platform. Aside from Google not having a proven track record as a hardware company, if it were to start producing phones, it would seriously anger its 55 OEMs. That's a delicate situation, considering it's already in a pretty precarious position with its perceived favoritism with its Nexus phones. That's why the Google is reportedly partnering with multiple hardware makers to release several Nexus-branded devices each year. However, owning Motorola makes all those alleged plans a bit hazy. [Google]